The Fourth Floor Corridor
by LoquaciousConstellation
Summary: Snape catches couples in a secret fourth floor corridor. One shot.


**A/N- So I wrote this one around two in the morning last night and for some reason decided to immediately post it... Sorry for any weirdness!**

There probably would be worse things than it becoming widely known that the hallway at the end of the fourth floor corridor was always empty, but none of those things mattered to Severus Snape. What mattered to Severus Snape was that he had a place to walk around and think where there were no grubby little first-years creeping in to ask him to go over that lesson on disarming spells before the exam, no professors announcing that he was late for another staff meeting, no fizzing fireworks or stupid snackpacks or whatever the hell those Weasley boys were selling to the kids right now.

He was always so careful, too. He never retreated to his hiding spot more than once per week, always making sure no one followed him or saw where he was going. Peeves preferred prey that would get in trouble-students sneaking around at night, trading homework pages between classes, sneaking in firewhisky from The Hog's Head-so Snape never worried much about him, knowing his quiet pacing would only bore the poltergeist.

The best bit by far of the secret hallway was the southward-facing window. The windowsill was deep enough for him to sit down on, and (though he would not easily admit this), he loved sitting and listening to the rain on gloomy days.

Snape was almost giddy as he walked up the stairs after class. It had been pouring all day, and not only that, but he could have sworn he heard _thunder_ a minute ago. Not that rain was scarce in Scotland, but as his luck would have it he was almost always busy on rainy days for one reason or another. Snape quickened his pace once he reached the fourth floor. He hurried towards his favorite window, pulled back the drapes, and then-

"POTTER! WEASLEY!" he bellowed, enraged at the teenage boy and girl he caught occupying his seat. "It is _past_ curfew. Now kindly get your hands OFF each other and return to your dormitories immediately!"

As the pair rushed off, the Weasley girl began hurriedly running her fingers through her mussed-up hair, and Potter nervously straightened his tie. "And I'll be taking ten points from Gryffindor. For _both_ of you," Snape sneered at them as they ran away. _I should have taken forty_, he thought. Because of those two, there was no way Snape would be able to enjoy his time in the secret hallway today. Not after those idiots sat there _snogging in his seat_. Now Severus couldn't stop thinking about the day he first discovered the corridor, the only other time he had ever seen anyone sitting on that windowsill.

~~~~~1978~~~~~

"Shh, James, I don't mean to-but, well, I do have quite a reputation to uphold and-no really, shh!" Lily giggled. "I-I don't mean to disappoint you, but I can't afford to get caught-"

"Oh, calm down!" James replied. "No one ever comes to this hallway, there aren't-Lily, there aren't any classrooms or anything over here, I promise, we're fine."

Severus had been discreetly following the couple for nearly an hour now. Not out of any voyeuristic inclination, in fact, he couldn't even see them from where he was hiding. He could hear them very well, though, and that was all that mattered. As long as he could hear Lily's voice everything would all be alright.

What was not alright was the fact that Lily and that idiot Potter were definitely snogging behind that curtain. Lily had always _hated_ that moron. Or at least, she used to. Now all anyone talks about is how these two can't keep their hands off each other. _Because Potter is such a pig_, Snape thought. _If Lily dated me, I would just listen to her talk… I could listen to her voice for days on end. I wouldn't be such a skeevy creep_. Snape told himself lies like this every day, always ignoring the fact that following a girl and her boyfriend into an abandoned corridor falls into the "skeevy creep" category more than James wanting to snog his girlfriend does. It sounded like the kissing was dying down, so Severus strained his ears to listen to their conversation.

"Are you going to join once school is out?" Severus heard Lily whisper, nervous.

"Of course," James responded confidently, without any hesitation. "I would join the Order now if they'd let me. You?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, I-I'm joining. I am. I know I am, I'm just-it's just scary. You know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Because it's a war. We'll be soldiers in a war. Why are soldiers always so young? We used to talk about this at school, muggle school, I mean. They're always teenagers, or in their early twenties. It's always the same, be it muggle or magical, it's always kids fighting." Lily paused. "I'm afraid to fight."

"I'm terrified."

"Do you think we'll be alright?"

"Well, I think you're about the best witch I've ever seen. You-Know-Who himself would have to start personally hunting you down before I ever got too worried about you."

"And you?"

"I'll do my best."

It was quiet for a long time before Severus heard James speak again.

"Lily, once we're out of school, and, you know, once we're in the Order and everything, well, er… I was hoping-or I mean, I thought maybe, you know, we should… get married?"

"Married?"

"I'm sorry, it was just a thought, I don't mean to be pushing things but I just felt like-"

"No, no, that's not it, just don't you think we're a little… young?"

"Yeah, we are. But it's like you said, we're going to be fighting a war pretty soon. Look, I don't expect you to have an answer right now, you can think as long as you need to. I just, well, _I've_ been thinking about it a lot lately, so I kind of just want to make sure you were thinking about it too. That's all."

Lily giggled quietly. "I guess I hadn't thought about it too seriously before. I mean, I thought about it, but I didn't realize it could happen so soon, I guess. But yeah, don't worry, I'll _definitely_ be thinking about marriage now."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Promise."

Severus hid himself as he heard the couple leaving their hiding spot. _Maybe I shouldn't have hid from them_, he thought. _Maybe I should've stayed in plain sight and then James would hex me to death! No, he wouldn't do that in front of Lily. Death sure does sound great right now, though._

Maybe if they had seen him, Snape could have confronted Lily. He could have told her how crazy it was to get married at eighteen. He could have talked her out of it. She would have to respect his logic, honestly, she had only been dating the Potter prat for six months! Obviously that wasn't long enough to really know a person. Or at least not well enough to marry them.

But Severus knew. In the following weeks, anywhere James or Lily were, they had stupid smiles plastered on their faces. Those idiots. She was going to marry him.

Severus knew when he returned to the hallway the next day, and the day after that (because that was before he learned to be careful about his hiding place). He knew she would never refer to him as "Sev" again. He knew he had ruined his life once and for all, that his stupid obsession with the darks arts had taken away any chance at love. He knew he would never again find happiness in another person.

He knew when he sat in that windowsill, that Lily would never be there sitting beside him.

**Thank you for reading! Reviews are always appreciated! (Also the first half of the story is meant to take place during Harry's sixth year, when Snape was D.A.D.A teacher, not potions)**


End file.
